View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | Date Submitted | Last Update | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0006542 | Valley 1 | Suggestion - UI Ideas | Mar 8, 2012 4:58 pm | Apr 13, 2012 12:07 am | |
| Reporter | Bluddy | Assigned To | Chris_McElligottPark | ||
| Status | resolved | Resolution | no change required | ||
| Product Version | 0.904 | ||||
| Fixed in Version | 0.924 | ||||
| Summary | 0006542: Make teleporting easier | ||||
| Description | Currently teleporting is a bit of a pain. You need to fiddle with the interface on the mouse, move maps around using the keyboard, and finally make a choice from a meny, all while monsters are attacking you. It also doesn't feel like a challenging part of the game since you're just struggling with the interface. First, I'd like to suggest a teleporting interface using the keyboard. Pressing 'use' on the warp gate would move focus to the map, at which point you move a cursor - the target room icon would flash. This would make teleporting much easier when using a keyboard interface. Now I realize there's a problem with multiplayer and gates, which I think is why the game doesn't pause for you to choose your teleport target. Also, if using the gate made you invincible, you could use the gate to protect yourself even if you didn't mean to teleport. I think the gate should make you invincible so you can choose your target, but there should be a countdown per player on using the gate -- you can only use the same gate once per, say, 2 minutes. So you can't abuse the gate as a source of invincibility. | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
| Internal Weight | New | ||||
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If you tap E, it brings up the region map AND makes you invincible. Then it's all mouse-based from there. Using a mixture of mouse and keyboard is a core part of this game and isn't going to change; but you're also not having any need to do this while monsters attack you, since if you read that message it makes you invincible. As a general rule, this is not a keyboard-or-gamepad-only game. There are all sorts of parts of the interface that require a mouse, and this is one of them. Originally we weren't going to do it that way, and tried having keyboard-only controls for everything in addition to the mouse stuff, but that turned into a real pain from a usability standpoint and so we stripped that out. Definitely not interested in going back there! |
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OK I didn't realize that pressing E makes you invincible. How silly is that? Nevertheless, I think it illustrates something. I previously found that pressing E brings up the instructions, and I subconsciously didn't want to bring up the 'wall of text' that was clearly meant to explain a mechanic I already thought I understood. It seemed strange to me that pressing E brings up an explanation... I think it would have been clearer if the bottom right map zoomed in and filled the screen like the top left map can. You'd then have a button appear for 'region map' and for 'dungeon map'. It'd be clear that you need to select from the map, without needing the text. Maybe don't even zoom the map in -- just move it to the center of the screen so the next action become obvious. The wall of text could then be an opt-in. |
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Could be -- I don't think this is worth time right now, though, do you? Zooming in the map in the bottom right would be extremely difficult to do, as it's entirely different technology than the thing in the upper left. The upper left map is a texture that we draw pixel by pixel. The thing in the bottom right is a mesh, and trying to scale that up likely isn't going to look right at all. Not to mention complications with maps of various scales, etc, etc. |
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Hey, I'm just reporting my interface simplification/polish observations. If there are bigger fish to fry right now, that's totally ok. Also, I don't think zooming is necessary -- moving the map temporarily to the center (or even copying it) would be enough. |
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Fair enough -- it's certainly worth considering, as you say. |
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Also: I should note that I don't want you (or anyone else) to stop reporting potential issues just because it doesn't fit at the moment prior to 1.0. I just get a bit overwhelmed sometimes. |
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Suggestion --- how about making warp stones doors to a safe warp room between dimensions or whatever? That would be an easy fix that would make the safety issue immediately obvious and would remove the need for experienced players to look at an atmosphere-breaking help message, without the need for pausing. Wouldn't need to change their graphics; they'd be warping you to the safe room rather than being actual doors. |
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I like martyn's idea a LOT. |
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For various technical reasons, that would be even harder to do -- unless those were literally invisible on the dungeon/chunk map, I guess. Hmm... in that sense, that would work out much better and easier. These could work like buildings do, just with a single room and specific graphics, and they would not show up on your region/dungeon maps at all. So, to come completely full circle in my thinking, this would actually by far be the easiest solution! :) |
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To an extent I like the warping in/out of actively hostile areas, particularly on surface chunks. |
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Thanks! * The way that warp gates work is now completely different. Standing in front of them to use them, and being able to pop up a message to become invincible as well as to get tips on how to use them, was really counter-intuitive to basically everyone. ** Now when you pass a warp gate, it just says "Press E to enter warp gate," like any building/cavern/vent/door/etc does. ** When you enter the warp gate, it takes you into a visual depiction of the crack in spacetime. There is nothing in that crack except an exit back out the way you came, as well as a signpost that explains the basics of how to use warp gates. There are no monsters in these cracks. ** While standing in a warp gate, the region map will always be shown (by default it is not shown at all now, remember). ** Clicking on any dungeon in the region map shows the dungeon in question at the same time as the region map (per the other changes already noted in this release). ** Clicking any previously-visited dungeon map node that has a warp gate lets you warp there, same as it previously did. ** So in general it works exactly the same as it did before, but now it's considerably less fiddly to work with, and the explanations for how to use these are a lot more clear. |
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Wow! What a great solution! |
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 8, 2012 4:58 pm | Bluddy | New Issue | |
| Mar 8, 2012 5:04 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Internal Weight | => New |
| Mar 8, 2012 5:04 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0020605 | |
| Mar 8, 2012 5:04 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Status | new => closed |
| Mar 8, 2012 5:04 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Assigned To | => Chris_McElligottPark |
| Mar 8, 2012 5:04 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Resolution | open => no change required |
| Mar 8, 2012 8:04 pm | Bluddy | Note Added: 0020610 | |
| Mar 8, 2012 8:08 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0020611 | |
| Mar 8, 2012 8:17 pm | Bluddy | Note Added: 0020612 | |
| Mar 8, 2012 8:22 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0020613 | |
| Mar 8, 2012 8:22 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Status | closed => considering |
| Mar 8, 2012 8:23 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0020616 | |
| Mar 8, 2012 11:44 pm | martyn_van_buren | Note Added: 0020626 | |
| Mar 8, 2012 11:46 pm | martyn_van_buren | Note Edited: 0020626 | |
| Mar 9, 2012 12:14 am | khadgar | Note Added: 0020630 | |
| Mar 9, 2012 9:40 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0020649 | |
| Mar 10, 2012 5:07 am | Moo | Note Added: 0020700 | |
| Apr 12, 2012 9:08 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0021976 | |
| Apr 12, 2012 9:08 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Status | considering => resolved |
| Apr 12, 2012 9:08 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Fixed in Version | => 0.924 |
| Apr 13, 2012 12:07 am | Penumbra | Note Added: 0021979 |
